We blew it: Setting the record straight
Freeman, reporter apologize for incorrect story about fake money
Video surveillance produced by Rondout Savings Bank shows that a Freeman reporter was not given a counterfeit $100 bill — or any $100 bill — by the bank as the reporter had claimed in a first-person story published this week by the Freeman.
The video record produced by the bank Thursday clearly shows the teller counting out $375 in small-denomination bills — none larger than $20 — to Diane Pineiro-Zucker. Pineiro-Zucker then recounted the bills before placing them in her wallet.
Pineiro-Zucker wrote a story, which appeared on the Freeman’s website on Tuesday and in print on Wednesday, in which she said she was passed the fake currency on Jan. 8, when she cashed her son’s paycheck at the Rondout Savings Bank branch on Schwenk Drive.
After viewing the tape, Pineiro-Zucker conceded that was not the case.
“I saw the tape,” she said.“It was clearly my mistake,” she said. “I am tremendously sorry if I made anybody at the bank look bad.”
Pineiro-Zucker said she has no idea where she obtained the phony $100 bill or how her recollection could be so wrong.
The Freeman issued a retraction of the story that appeared online Thursday and in print Friday.
“It’s not accurate, her allegations are not accurate and her memory of what happened are not accurate,” said bank President Cheryl Bowers.
“She seemed to have a vivid memory of it and there’s no accuracy to it . ... This was just false,” Bowers said.
Bowers said that, since the story appeared, the bank has been besieged by calls from nervous customers worried about their deposits. She said employees have been doing their best to assuage people’s concerns and assure them that their money is safe at Rondout Savings Bank.
“It’s been a terrible couple of days,” she said.
Bowers said she is most upset that the Freeman moved forward so quickly with the story, without giving bank employees time to investigate Pineiro-Zucker’s claim. “None of this had to happen,” said Bowers. “It could have all been avoided.”
Pineiro-Zucker said she went to the Schwenk Drive branch on Tuesday at first as a customer who believed the bank had given her counterfeit money.
In her story, PineiroZucker wrote that the branch manager took the fake currency, but declined to reimburse her, saying the bank had no way of knowing whether the bill actually came from the bank.
A short time later, PineiroZucker returned to the bank as a reporter to do a story and was told to contact Bowers. Pineiro-Zucker said that, at about 11 a.m. Tuesday, she called and left a message for Bowers.
Bowers said she got Pineiro-Zucker’s message shortly after 2 p.m. and reached out to the bank’s security officer, who had gone home ill that day. She said before the bank could look into the matter, the story had appeared on the Freeman’s website.
The first iteration of the story appeared on the Freeman site at 4:35 p.m.
Pineiro-Zucker said that, at about 5:40 p.m., Seanne Crozier, an assistant vice president and security officer at Rondout Savings, contacted Pineiro-Zucker at home. About the same time, Bowers called the Freeman office.
Bowers called the fiveand-one-half hours between the time Pineiro-Zucker left her a message and the time the story appeared on line “an unreasonable time line.” “I could see if it was a day or two days later,” she said. “It was a matter of two hours.”
Bowers said that, if the bank had been given more time, it certainly would have looked into the allegations, saying the idea that the bank could be passing counterfeit money “is a big deal to us.”
Following a meeting with bank officials, Freeman Managing Editor Tony Adamis said they “have every reason to be upset.”
“The sad fact is we can’t fix it,” he said. “All we can do is set the record straight as best we can.”
Adamis said there is no question that a bank passing counterfeit money would be news and, based on his reporter’s affirmation to him, he believed that was what had occurred.
Because he believed the first-person account of Pineiro-Zucker, he said, the paper didn’t approach the story with the “necessary skepticism” of professional journalism.
“The fact is the Freeman blew the story and most of the responsibility for that lies with me,” Adamis said.
“I have apologized to bank President Cheryl Bowers, and I would also like to extend my apologies to all the other men and women of Rondout Savings Bank, and especially all their customers, who deserve to have faith in their financial institution.
“I also apologize to our readers, who deserve better.
“I am sorry,” Adamis said.